Head Admits to Talks with Villeneuve

Patrick Head admitted on Thursday that Williams have spoken to former World Champion driver Jacques Villeneuve but denied all knowledge that the Canadian will test for the team.

Villeneuve was rumoured to be testing for Williams at the Paul Ricard circuit in France last week but technical director Head denied plans to get the 1997 champion into their car as they look for a replacement for McLaren-bound Juan Pablo Montoya.

"We certainly had one discussion with him," Head said when asked about talks with Villeneuve. When asked if Villeneuve would test in the future, Head added: "All is possible in the future. I can't and won't make any comment on it.

"I was rung up after Barcelona saying that they understood Jacques Villeneuve was at Ricard and was going to be driving one of our cars there. It was certainly the first I knew about it. I did buzz upstairs and asked Frank whether he had set something up and hadn't told me about it, but he also denied all knowledge."

Villeneuve left Williams in 1999 to move to BAR-Honda, the team set up by his manager Craig Pollock, but he was ditched at the end of last season.

Montoya will leave Williams to join McLaren at the end of the year while his teammate Ralf Schumacher has yet to sign a new deal and could switch to Toyota. Williams have already tested reigning IRL champion Scott Dixon with Jaguar's Mark Webber a key target, while test drivers Marc Gene and Antonio Pizzonia are hopeful of stepping up to the race team.